Our youngest broke up today, and I cannot express how relieved I am that we’ve got to the end of the Christmas term 2020. It’s a small school, they have handled the year bubbles well and it has been relatively uneventful (yes, there have been a few cases of Covid amongst staff and students, but the school have been very good, have enforced Public Health England (PHE) protocol and disruption has been minimal), but I am so pleased that they broke up today.

I was worried when they went back. I was worried about Covid, I was worried about the impact the summer term had had on learning (again, school handled things well, but it wasn’t the same as being ‘in’ lessons) and I was worried about how the change in routine and being locked into the bubble was going to have on his mental health.

It hasn’t been easy, and it took a while for him to adjust. The masks weren’t comfortable, lunchtime was too noisy (he used to get an early lunch pass so that he avoided crowds, but this term they had to stay in their year bubble) and even at break they had to stay in their common room. That was hard. I contacted school and they did the best they could, but as year groups had to stay together, there wasn’t a lot of flexibility.

There was also the uncertainty about whether or not the exams would go ahead. Although at the beginning of this academic year I wanted the exams cancelled and everything be based on classroom assessments, as this term has gone on, and with the hope of mass vaccinations, I now hope they can sit their June exams, and I hope that it gives the current Y11 and Y13 cohorts more time to learn and to catch up. It also gives them the opportunity to finish the course they started back in September 2019, and to (hopefully) put 2020 behind them as they move on to bigger and better things.

So, here we are, at the end of y11 term 1. Just 2 more terms and our baby will be ready for 6th form – and he has already made his choices.

I would not choose a year like 2020, and had you told me this time last year what the next 12 months would bring, I would have panicked, but this year has been good for our youngest. It has given him time to reflect and to pause. It has forced him to take more responsibility for his own learning, and has given him a taste of a more college based style of learning in the summer term of online lessons. It will have shaped his future as well, not just in terms of academics, but in terms of who he is. This year will have a huge impact on older teens and young adults; they are old enough to understand the consequences of a pandemic, they will have seen older relatives shield and may even had known people who have had Covid and who may not have recovered, but they are not old enough to help or to do anything about it. They are living through an unprecedented global disaster which is impacting every part of their lives. Just to have got through this year without too many hiccups is amazing, and I applaud each and every one of them.

So, what next? Hopefully next year will see the virus being brought under control through vaccinations and wise governmental decisions, and our teens can finish Y11 with confidence that there really isn’t anything that they cannot overcome with perseverance, hard work and just keeping going.